Revealed: price per square metre variations in England and Wales

Homes in the most expensive area of England and Wales cost 25 times as much as in the cheapest area, according to Office for National Statistics.

Its analysis of 2016 property prices, just released, looks at one square metre’s cost across England and Wales.

The most expensive is £19,439 in Kensington and Chelsea, while in Blaenau Gwent in the South Wales valleys, the same amount of space costs £777.

In 2016 the average cost of property sold in England and Wales was £2,395 per square metre.

Nineteen of the top 20 most expensive local authority areas are in London with Kensington and Chelsea, the City of London, Westminster and Camden topping the list. Barking and Dagenham was the cheapest London borough where homes cost £3,994 psm.

Elmbridge in Surrey is the costliest area outside London, while York was the most expensive area in the North of England.

South Wales and Lancashire are the cheapest places to buy property. In Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Burnley and Hyndburn, homes cost less than £1,000 per square metre.

The average house sold in England and Wales in 2016 had a floor area of 104 metres squared – that’s about two-fifths the size of a tennis court, or 70 times smaller than the football pitch at Wembley.

Flats averaged 49 metres squared (excluding bathrooms, corridors, hallways and landings) – that’s just over four times bigger than a typical car-parking space.

Taking flats and houses together, the average size of properties sold in England and Wales in 2016 was 90 metres squared – a little smaller than the EU average, and much smaller than new homes in the United States.

Interestingly - and perhaps contrary to popular perception - new properties are a lot bigger than existing ones according to the ONS. 

In 2016, the average new house sold was 13 per cent bigger than the average existing house, while the average new flat was 17 per cent bigger than the average existing flat.

In the last three years, new flats in England and Wales have increased in size by 8.5 metres squared. 

You can see all the data here.